


just add sugar

by aglassflower



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Baking, Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, some innuendos make there way in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29332896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aglassflower/pseuds/aglassflower
Summary: If it hadn't been for Jaemin, Renjun wouldn't have thought of doing this, Donghyuck wouldn't have come in to bother him and Renjun wouldn't have been upset when there wasn't as much skin showing. And he wouldn't have been caught staring at Donghyuck's lips.That's probably the biggest thing.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 12
Kudos: 99
Collections: Love Dream 2020





	just add sugar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toojuns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toojuns/gifts).



> renjun definitely did whatever he wanted in this. 
> 
> hope that you enjoy!

Renjun stares at the mess in front of him and sighs, noting how miserably this was going for him. He decides that he’s going to place every ounce of blame that he possibly can on Jaemin for putting this thought into his head—unintentional or not. However, knowing Jaemin, it was definitely on purpose. He’s probably out there, somewhere, enjoying every second of Renjun’s misery. 

He thinks back to the practice where Jaemin had cornered him the first moment that he had a chance, during one of their breaks, and had nonchalantly mentioned that Donghyuck’s birthday was coming up and asked if he had thought about what he was going to do for it. 

Of course Renjun hadn’t put any thought into it—why would he? It wasn’t like it was tomorrow or anything. They normally all just came up with something last minute anyways. Renjun had received a very pointed look when he had voiced that. Renjun hadn’t known how to take that look. He just shook his head as they took back up their positions as their break ended and they began to run through the choreography again, ignoring some of the glances that were shot his way. 

But that little seed had been planted in his head and it got him thinking. He probably _should_ do something. They’re busy, too busy to take the extra time to themselves for anything extravagant, what with all the dance practices and song recordings—days way too long and nights way to short—so maybe something a bit more personalized, with a little more thought put into it, would be appreciated? 

So then he had to think about _what_ he should do, and Renjun knows that food is usually appreciated, especially when it comes to sweets. 

Which brings him to his current situation—attempting to bake a cake from scratch. 

He has his phone open to a recipe that he had found online, with all the ingredients and cooking utensils required strewn across the counter. It’s something simple, a basic vanilla cake, because he doesn’t think that he’d have much success trying to make something more complicated. 

It had sounded easy enough when he had found it, looking through the steps to ensure that there wasn’t anything aimed at anything higher than a beginner. 

But it is a mess, a miserable mess, and Renjun finds out pretty quickly that he is not a baker in any sense of the word. 

He’s lost track of how many pieces of eggshell he’s had to pick out of the batter because he can’t seem to figure out how to crack the shell correctly, or how many times he’s had to start over because he’s pretty positive that the batter mix isn’t supposed to be _that_ thick, right? There’s milk spilled on the counter because he can’t seem to hold the carton steady enough as he’s pouring it into the measuring cup so now it’s all over the counter and he’s pretty sure that he’s wearing more flour than he has in the mixing bowl. 

Renjun makes a silent promise to himself that he’s never going to do this to himself ever again—he doesn’t care how much he likes the person he’s doing it for, and he doesn’t care that he’s doing it to himself because it was _himself_ that had thought this up. But, yeah. Never again. 

Renjun curses underneath his breath as he begins measuring things out again. This _should_ be the easy part, the easiest part of the whole recipe—making the batter. He’s glad that he had the foresight to buy premade icing, because this is not going at all the way he wants it to and he needs at least one thing to go correctly during this whole trainwreck. 

“Oh? Renjun in the kitchen? What’s the special occasion?” 

It takes a lot of willpower for Renjun to not jump at the voice that comes from the entrance of the kitchen, sounding suspiciously like Donghyuck—raspy, as though he had just woken up. Renjun had expected to be alone in the dorm, assuming that everyone else was taking advantage of the time off they’d been given, since he had woken up late and hadn’t run into anyone else. Apparently he had been wrong. 

Renjun is trying to pretend that his heart isn’t trying to beat its way out of his chest, that he hadn’t been more than a little startled at Donghyuck’s sudden and unexpected appearance. 

Donghyuck moves from the doorway, walking further into the kitchen, and lets out a snort at the sight in front of him. 

“Don’t say anything,” Renjun warns, sending a glare in Donghyuck’s direction. Donghyuck’s gaze isn’t even on him, but on the mess that is everything on the counter. Renjun takes that opportunity to take Donghyuck in—his hair that definitely hadn’t been brushed and that hands had been run through, an overly large shirt hanging down one of his shoulders and showing off his collarbone. Renjun swallows and turns his gaze back to his phone, making sure to touch the screen so that it doesn’t go black. “I’m serious, don’t. You also don’t see anything, okay? This is all a figment of your imagination, and you’re going to turn back around and go back to sleep.” 

“I am? It’s the middle of the day,” Donghyuck says through a yawn, as though he hadn’t just rolled out of bed, and then pauses to pull out his phone, checking the time and then he nods. “Yeah, middle of the day and I’m wide awake. Can’t just go back to sleep now. Also, there’s _cake_? Yup, wide awake.”

Before Renjun can even blink or say anything, Donghyuck reaches over and dips his finger into the batter, effectively making Renjun’s brain short-circuit as he wraps his lips around it and lets out a low moan. 

Renjun’s gaze locks on Donghyuck’s lips, watching as his tongue sweeps across his lips to catch any of the remaining batter that may have been left behind. He clears his throat and brings his eyes to Donghyuck’s, whose lips are now quirked up in a little amused smirk. 

“There’s raw egg in that, you probably should wait until it’s finished before trying it,” Renjun finally mutters. He can feel his face flush and he shakes his head, breaking eye contact. Renjun lets out a deep breath, and tries to clear the sight of Donghyuck’s lips from his mind. He takes that break to start back up again. 

“You need to learn how to live just a little, Renjun,” Donghyuck says as he moves back, finally taking a seat and taking a moment to make himself comfortable. His elbow is on the counter, head tilted and resting in his hand as he watches Renjun move, teeth gnawing on his bottom lip as though he’s working through some sort of puzzle. 

It’s a little nerve-wracking, Renjun thinks, having Donghyuck watching him. It’s something that he should be used to, but it’s a little different when he’s not confident in what he’s doing. It makes him feel self-conscious and makes him want to just stop what he’s doing. He’s not going to, though. Renjun has spent too much time, and has made too much of a mess, to not go through with it. 

It's a little grating, is all. 

“Don’t you have something else that you could be doing? Somewhere to be that isn’t here? People to see that aren’t here?” Renjun asks, keeping his gaze down and away from Donghyuck—away from the collarbone that’s _still_ showing, and away from the lips that are now slightly swollen from Donghyuck’s teeth worrying them. 

Renjun is trying so very hard to not be distracted—he’s almost finished, just needs to find a pan for the batter—but it’s hard to focus on anything else when Donghyuck is just _right there._ He doesn’t know why it’s affecting him so strongly, him being here. It’s not the first time they’ve been alone in a room together for any length of time and left to their own devices. 

And Renjun _has_ cooked for others before. Maybe it hadn’t been for anyone in particular, maybe it had been more like Renjun was hungry and just ended up making enough for whoever else was there to join in, but he’d still done it. 

However, what he hasn’t done before is plan a whole surprise early birthday cake for someone who is now sitting in front of him and intently watching him. 

“You sound as though you don’t want me here,” Donghyuck says, a pout on his lips. He straightens up and places one of his hands on his chest in mock hurt. “I can’t believe this. I’m here to keep you company and you’re telling me to go away.”

“You’re distracting me,” Renjun says, rolling his eyes at the dramatics. He’s fumbling through the cabinets and lets out a ‘ _yes!’_ when he finds what he’s looking for. However— 

“A round cake tastes the best, didn’t you know that?” Renjun kind of wants to chuck the _perfectly fine rectangular pan_ at Donghyuck’s head when he turns around and Donghyuck can see what’s in his head. 

“It’ll taste fine either way,” Renjun replies, because he is not going back through everything again. Donghyuck is just going to have to deal. He might have decided to do this for him, but even he has his limits and clearly that limit is finding a specific cooking appliance.

Time seems to move quickly as he greases the pan and pours the batter in, hoping that Donghyuck hadn’t taken advantage of his back being turned to sample more—oven preheated, timer turned on, and now there’s nothing really left to distract him from Donghyuck. 

Renjun lets out a sigh when he turns around, finally acknowledging Donghyuck after what feels like forever, but still not long enough. “Okay, let it out of your system.” 

“I know that I asked earlier, but is there some sort of special occasion going on? Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look that focused, except when you’re performing or when we’re doing those competition type games,” Donghyuck says, shifting in his seat. “Is there something I need to be preparing for?” 

Renjun takes a moment to figure out how to answer, because he could say that there _is_ a special occasion that’s coming up. However, now that Donghyuck has seen him actually in the kitchen, he can’t just up and say that he had made it for him. It was supposed to be a surprise and, if Renjun could find a way to manage it, anonymous. 

“Not really, no. I just wanted to bake something, and decided that today was a good day to do it. It’s not for anything special,” Renjun finally settles on saying and sends a pointed look at Donghyuck. “Nobody was supposed to be here.”

“I see,” Donghyuck says, nodding slowly in understanding. He’s finally sitting up straight and, much to Renjun’s chagrin, has fixed his shirt so that it wasn’t showing as much skin as it had previously. Why that was something he had noticed, and why now of all times, he didn’t know. 

Again, he blames Jaemin for all of this. If it hadn’t been for him, he wouldn’t have thought of doing this and Donghyuck wouldn't have come in to bother him, and Renjun wouldn’t be upset that there wasn’t as much skin showing. And he wouldn't have been caught staring at Donghyuck's lips.

That's probably the biggest thing.

Renjun probably would have been okay for the rest of his never knowing what Donghyuck looked like licking his fingers clean or how they looked swollen— 

He blinks when he hears a clearing of a throat and sees Donghyuck staring at him with an expectant look. He also looks like he’s trying not to smile and Renjun thinks that he’s probably just going to ignore that. 

“Sorry, what was that?” 

“I said—Did you want any help with the icing? Or cleaning up? Or something else, maybe?” Renjun also decides that he’s going to ignore the sudden change in Donghyuck’s voice at that last question. Nope. He’s not going to touch that at all. 

Or any of it, really. 

The timer goes and Renjun is taking the pan out of the oven—making a mental note to probably buy some better oven mitts, because he doesn’t know if he should be feeling that much heat through the fabric—and he’s turning around when he hears another voice in the room with them. 

“You’re baking for Donghyuck, Junnie? I thought Jaemin said that you hadn’t figured out what you wanted to do yet?” And Renjun loves Jeno, he really does, but sometimes he wishes he didn’t talk to Jaemin so much. A ridiculous wish, he knows. 

Renjun doesn’t say anything, just closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before he’s opening them again and moving towards the counter, pointendly ignoring both Donghyuck and Jeno. 

“A cake? For me?” Donghyuck asks and he’s leaning forward in his seat, elbows resting on the counter. “Ah, but Renjun-ah, I thought you said that you just wanted to bake something for yourself? That it wasn’t for anything special?” 

“Jeno doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and neither does Jaemin.” Renjun is never letting Jaemin talk him, or guilt him or whatever, into doing something for anyone ever again.

There’s a moment of silence and Renjun takes that time to turn and grab the icing—even though he’s certain that it’s still too early to ice, thinks that he remembers that it should cool down for about ten minutes or so first—he hears the screech of a chair against the floor, then arms wrap tightly around his waist, and then Donghyuck’s face is next to his as he rests his head on Renjun’s shoulder. 

Renjun hears laughter which he assumes has come from Jeno, really hopes that someone else hasn’t walked in even though he knows that there are others that have headed back by now. He closes his eyes and relaxes into the hold, because he knows that he wouldn’t be able to fight Donghyuck off even if he tried. 

And, okay. Renjun probably isn’t ever going to admit this out loud, but it _does_ feel kind of nice. 

“I can’t believe you literally stood there and baked a cake for me, right in front of my face and denied it,” Donghyuck says, trying to sound offronted but Renjun can hear the laughter in his voice, can feel his chest vibrating with it. “You are such an awful liar, you know that right?” 

Renjun doesn’t dignify that with a response, just sniffs and looks away. Renjun can be a decent liar when he wants to be. It’s just that he had been thrown off guard. It’s not his fault that he had been so distracted that he couldn’t keep his eyes in check. 

There’s a quick squeeze and then Donghyuck lets Renjun go and he lets out a sigh of relief. Which is short-lived because he’s being turned around and lips are being pressed against his—quick and chaste, leaving him speechless. Renjun can hear other voices, but he’s not able to process what they’re saying. He just stares at Donghyuck, mouth hanging open. 

“Instead of staring, you should probably do that next time,” Donghyuck says, gently closing Renjun’s mouth. “Also, I think maybe _my_ cake is cool enough to put the icing on, so we probably get on that.”

Donghyuck bends over and grabs the tub of icing that had fallen from his hands, onto the floor, without even noticing and heads back to the counter and waits. 

But it’s not for long—Renjun takes a deep breath, shaking his head, and follows. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the mods for being so wonderful to work with! You are absolute angels.


End file.
